March 6, 2016

"I think Marco Rubio had a very, very bad night. And personally I'd call on him to drop out of the race. I think it's time now that he drop out of the race. I really think so. I think it's probably time.... You got to be able to win. He has not been able to win. And I think that it's time that he drops out,"

By the way, the expression is "clear the deck," so if Trump said "clean the deck" on purpose, it kind of was disrespectful.

Anyway, Trump says he would "love to take on Ted one-on-one" and: "That would be so much fun. Because Ted can't win New York. He can't win New Jersey. He can't win Pennsylvania. He can't win California. I want Ted one-on-one, OK?"

Why did Trump call on Rubio to drop out of the race?

He's accurately observing that Rubio can't win and therefore that it should be a 2-man race.

He's trying to annoy and irritate Rubio to create chaos and induce mistakes.

When Marco made it legitimate for the NYT to put a story on their front page about penis size and the Republican nominees, and, as far as I am concerned, when Trump let himself be gulled into responding to it, they both disqualified themselves.

The headline for this comment might be "It was a misstep tailor made to delight left wing media."

Steyn has reversed position completely, taking into account the baleful effect of PC being the primary thing to beat today before anything else. That's more or less my position. You've got to beat the MSM as national editor before anything else can happen.

Interesting contrast. The Trump abhorers haven't made that turn with Steyn, a former Trump abhorer.

Whether Rubio officially stays in or drops out, many of the voters are treating him as effectively dropped out. Even if he officially stays in, they do not want to "waste" their vote and are going elsewhere. That's what happened with the Carson vote and for others.

Does Ted have a chance to win a lot of these winner take all states, though? Like Florida. If Rubio drops out it will likely go to trump. Cruz May in fact want to keep Rubio And kasich in at least till the win or lose their home states. It may lead to a brokered convention, but I'm not sure if Ted can win otherwise.

I honestly think that Trump is the only candidate who can beat Hillary. If any of the other Republican candidates get it, or if they manufacture a nomination for someone like Jeb or Romney, the country is toast. It is too easy for the MSM to make any other candidate distasteful to the public because no one knows them. People know Trump. He's been in the living rooms of the majority of the country for a very long time via his TV shows. More importantly, Trump knows the media. He's been to the same parties and worked with these people all of his adult life. That's why he's been so effective.The people I know who hate Trump fall into two categories 1) Peope who would vote for Hillary or Bernie anyways and 2) People who follow Republican politics closely. i.e. insiders. The latter category is not large, but they've assessed the candidates and know who they like and why. You can not say this about the majority of general election voters.If the Republicans successfully defeat Trump, we will have Hillary. And that is the worst thing that could happen to this country.

It's a way of planting the idea in people's minds that Rubio is a "loser." If he stays in, people will be less likely to vote for him. If he drops out, people will think it's because the "winner," the leader, Donald Trump pushed him.

As far as Republican voters are concerned, Rubio is dead meat. His gang-of-eight immigration plan makes him and Bush indistinguishable. That and that alone, will knock him out. He can inherit all on Bush's 100 million and it will guarantee him all of Bush's popularity.ce

Or a 3rd option is that Trump sees Cruz one on one as a easier path to the nomination. The 4 way race gets very complicated if Rubio wins Florida and Kasich wins Ohio or Michigan and Ohio. It's a good negotiating tactic.

The Donald is running for President. Either as the R nominee, or if a brokered convention gives it to somebody else, as an independent.He's running. So the choice for the R's is:Do you want to run Trump, or do you want to run against him and Hillary?

Trump likely cannot win a brokered convention. So his every move is meant to avoid a brokered convention.

While Dan the Man imagines Trump attempting to thread the needle as an Independent, nobody believes he could win as an Independent. His only act then would be as spoiler. I do not think Trump would relish the spoiler role as a sure loser.

I imagine Marco is staying in today, since Puerto Rico has 23 delegates up for grabs. No polling on the island! Marco has already grabbed 3 super-delegates. If he takes over 50%, he grabs all the delegates.

AA you are missing the real answer. Trump is sincere in his request, but his reason is that he can't stand any criticism, and if Rubio gets out of the race that will be one fewer person criticizing him on a daily basis.